TRUE-COST-CH

From farm to fork and beyond: a systemic approach for implementing the True Cost Accounting for Food (TCAF) in Switzerland

TRUE-COST-CH is an interdisciplinary project put together by a consortium of Swiss academic institutions and financed by the SNSF-SINERGIA grant for 2024-2027. Its main objective is to propose options for implementing True Cost Accounting for Food (TCAF), which evaluates the environmental, health and social impact of the food system in monetary terms. By applying this method to a number of food chains, the aim of the project is to bring stakeholders together to discuss the levers for the transition to a healthy, sustainable, resilient and fair food system.

The consortium

The consortium is currently composed of University of Lausanne (HEC and UNISANTE), EPFL (Laboratory for Environmental and Urban Economics – LEURE), HEG Fribourg (Center for Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability), University of Bern (Centre for Development and Environment), and Bern University for Applied Sciences (School of Agriculture, Forest and Food Sciences, HAFL).

International TCAF experts (Nadia El Hage Scialabba and ECOZEPT) and local business partners (BEELONG and Equal Profit) are also partnering in this initiative to ensure that our research is relevant and impactful.

The advisory board of the project is composed of ETHZ World Food Systems Center, Federal Office of Agriculture (OFAG), Agroscope, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL), and Enterprise for Society Center.

This project received recognition through the approval of a CHF 3.2 million fund for 4 years by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SINERGIA grant). It initially received seed funding from Leenaards Foundation, Mercator Foundation, the CROSS (UNIL-EPFL) interdisciplinary grant and EPFL-Integrative Food and Nutrition Center.